This is the story of my nontraditional transformation from a Physics/Spanish/Chemistry/Math grad into a physician. I'm a proud member of the class of 2016 at Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine. The blog title will be edited to reflect the current stage of my transformation: Pre-Medical, Medical, Residential, then Doctoral. Read more about me in the My Story tab below. Enjoy!

Other Stuff

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Bummerflat

"Hsssssssssss..."

That's the sound I heard as I stepped out of my car after parking in front of the Science Center before my afternoon presentation. I had just driven from work to home really quickly to pick something up for a post-presentation meeting I had with a professor, and had no problems with my tire... Until parking. I bent down by the tire, and the pressure felt pretty strong as I pressed on it with my thumb, but I could actually feel it getting softer as I heard the air shoot out of the unseen break. For a second, I stood there, dumfounded. I shook myself, muttered, "Well, there's not much I can do about it right now." And went in to give my presentation, knowing what I would come back to. The below video is what greeted me after my presentation.

I treated it as an opportunity, thinking I can change my own tire, then proudly tell Nicole when I get home tonight how I was able to handle it myself and didn't need to call a professional for help.

Wrong.

Sure, I got the spare tire off of its mount on the back door. Yeah, I got the jack out, positioned it well beneath the car, and lifted the wheel a significant distance off the ground. I even got four of the nuts off their respective bolts. What I couldn't quite do was keep the jack from suddenly failing, bending nearly in half as the car slammed to the ground again. Luckily, I (nor any part of me) was underneath the flat when it happened, but it was definitely a surprise. When I pulled the cheap, crunched jack from underneath the car, it was with a sense of resignation that I said to myself, "Well, guess I have to call someone..." Forty minutes and fifty dollars later, the tow guy had the easiest time of his life in changing a car tire. The good news is, my insurance is going to reimburse me for the cost of having him come out to do it, so I'll get that fifty bucks back. Tomorrow morning will be spent dropping off the bill to the insurance company, getting the flat fixed or replaced at OK Tires here in Holland (the tow guy recommended it to me), picking up the sticks from the yard so that the yard service (yeah, we have a yard service...) can mow the grass that's just now beginning to grow, then studying for the MCAT. Which, coincidentally, was what I was doing before taking a small break to write this post!

That being said, Nicole is reveling in her newfound freedom from class-related responsibility, as she had her chem final today. Granted, she wasn't under much stress leading up to today's exam, since she's so smart that she could have gotten a D- on the exam and still had an A- in the class... Yeah, I married a smart one, so that's pretty cool. I'm proud of her.